Owen Jessop of Westhampton Beach Wins Conference IV Boys Golf Championships

Owen Jessop didn’t get off to the start he was hoping for on Monday at the Conference IV Boys Golf Championships at Spring Lake Golf Club in Middle Island. He four-putted his first hole, putting him behind from the get-go. But the old adage of it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, certainly rang true for the Westhampton Beach junior.

Jessop quickly turned his game around, birdying six holes on the day, to shoot one-under par (71) and claim the individual Conference IV title. While he has won Metropolitan PGA Junior Tours before, Monday’s victory was his first at the high school level.

“Feels great,” to win his first high school tournament, he said Monday night. “I feel really good and confident going into counties after having played well at Sebonack, so I’m looking forward to it.”

With the way he’s been playing lately, Jessop said he wasn’t too worried when he fell behind early.

“I believe in my game. I wasn’t too stressed out, I kept my head in it and birdied the next two holes, then birdied two more after those, and later on birdied two more,” he explained. “Keeping my head straight and knowing that I had a lot of golf left to play was helpful.”

As Jessop mentioned playing in the Sebonack Challenge on Friday with teammate Zach Berger — the pair fell just two shots short of repeating as champs — but Jessop said playing in a competitive tournament like that certainly got him ready for Monday’s tournament.

“It definitely did. I love playing competitive golf. I think Sebonack is a great way to kick off the playoff season. It’s a fun format and it’s a great way to get those competitive juices flowing,” he said.

The conference championships work as a qualifier for the Section XI Individual and Team Championships. Those who finish under or at the cut, which was 84 on Monday, qualify for counties, and wildcard bids were to be had for the team tournament.

Berger, who won last year’s conference tournament, was tripped up by one hole this year, yet he was still able to shoot a 79 to qualify for counties easily. Berger and Jessop, who each qualified for states last year, will be joined by junior teammate Reid Groth, who was the last Hurricane to qualify after shooting an 83. And thanks to Jessop, Berger and Groth’s play, Westhampton Beach grabbed one of the wild card spots to join the team tournament which will take place following the individual county tournament. The ’Canes were county runner-ups in last year’s tournament.

East Hampton seniors Nico Horan-Puglia and Juan Palacios shot a 72 and 73, respectively, to finish second and third in Conference IV, which helped the Bonackers secure a spot in the team tournament. The next three finishers in the tournament all hailed from Southampton: sophomore Ethan Heuer (76), senior Liam Blackmore (77) and senior Ronan Brady (78). Along with sophomores Sam Conklin and Colin DiLaleo, who both shot 84s on Monday, the League VIII Champion Mariners qualified five players for counties. Only League VII Champion Riverhead, which won the team aspect of the conference championships, qualified all six of its players. The Blue Waves shot a team total of 391, finishing just eight shots ahead of Southampton. Mariners head coach Tim Schreck said he can’t remember the last time that more than one team finished the conference tournament under 400.

“Most years that you shoot under 400 as a team, it’s probably good enough for the win, but not this year,” he said. “The Riverhead kids were fantastic.”

Hampton Bays seniors Erik Sandstrom and Michael Poremba both qualified for counties by shooting a 78 and 83, respectively. Pierson senior Nathan Dee shot an 84 to qualify himself for counties and help his team nab the second-to-last wild card to get into the team tournament. Junior Adam Drohan and senior Carter Kleinsmith each shot 86s, Harry Ambrose shot an 87 and Paul Roesel finished with a 95. Pierson head coach Clint Schulman said that his team made a nearly 20-shot improvement over last year’s conference championships.

The county individual tournament begins this Monday, October 23, back at Spring Lake Golf Club and concludes the following day. The team tournament is expected to get underway Thursday, October 26.